Shari - Lindemann Chapter 13

Shari - Lindemann Chapter 13 - Developing Writing Assignments

This is a good chapter. I really enjoyed what she said as well as how she said it.  I agree when she says, "Because students learn to write by writing, our responsibility is to control and vary the rhetorical demands of writing tasks."    She goes on to say that we must develop in our students a sensitivity to looking at the relationship between the writer with the reader, and with the subject.  This is not necessarily easy (though she doesn't say this).

She does say and I like how she shows the various typical assignments that students are given (this was so refreshing as usually works that I've read only tell what to and not to do in description without giving clear examples).  It shows that teachers do the same old same old be it effective or not.  I want my students to have fun outside of the same old same old.  And it's true when she says that doing this same boring stuff produces dull, general writing that isn't clear to the student nor to the reader. 

I'm going to steal her variable for creating a effective writing task!  It's good!  It's clear.  It has the power to provide students with boundaries and demands (so students know what's expected of them), but still allows for freedom within the confines.  I want to say that students crave this kind of boundary so that they know what is expected from them.

1.  "Students' interest in and understanding of subject
2.  Purpose or aim of composition
3.  Audience (which needn't always be the teacher)
4.  Role for the student to take with respect to the subject and audience
5.  Form of discourse (which needn't always be an essay)
6.  Criteria for success"